National nonprofit names Kate Collins Middle a Common Sense School for digital learning

Common Sense, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting digital citizenship among students, has honored Kate Collins Middle School (KCMS) as a Common Sense School.

Led by the leadership of Tracy Goodson, KCMS Librarian, the KCMS school community has prioritized digital citizenship education and equipping students with the skills to think critically and use technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate while preparing them for the perils that exist in the online realm, such as plagiarism loss of privacy, and cyberbullying. With the right support, students can take ownership of their digital lives, engage with real issues and change their communities for the better. The recognition acknowledges KCMS’s commitment to creating a culture of digital citizenship.

“We applaud the faculty and staff of Kate Collins Middle School for embracing digital citizenship as an important part of their students’ education,” said Liz Kline, vice president of education programs at Common Sense Education. “KCMS deserves high praise for giving its students the foundational skills they need to compete and succeed in the 21st-century workplace and participate ethically in society
at large.”

Common Sense Education’s innovative and research-based digital citizenship resources, which were created in collaboration with researchers from Project Zero, are led by Howard Gardner at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and grounded in the real issues students and teachers face. The resources teach students, educators, and parents tangible skills related to internet safety, protecting online reputations and personal privacy, media balance, managing online relationships and media literacy. The free K–12 curriculum is used in classrooms across all 50 states, in more than 80,000 schools by more than 1,00,000 educators.

“We’re honored to be recognized as a Common Sense School,” said Marcia Nester, KCMS principal. “By preparing our students to use technology safely and responsibly, we are providing them an opportunity to build lifelong habits to help them succeed in a tech-driven world.”